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Saturday, October 29, 2011

Life of Sea | Blue glaucus (Glaucus atlanticus) | Blue glaucus is commonly known as the sea swallow, blue sea and the blue sea slug slug. It's a strange sort of medium-blue sea slug, a pelagic aeolid slug, a marine gastropod mollusk belonging to the family Glaucidae. It is the only species in the genus Glaucus, but it is closely associated with Glaucilla marginata, another member of the family Glaucidae. It is usually pelagic animal, and is spread over the oceans of the planet, in temperate and tropical waters. Areas where the slug is located beneath the eastern and southern coasts of South Africa, European waters, the east coast of Australia and Mozambique. This species floats upside down on the surface of the ocean.

The typical size of this species is between 5 and 8 inches in total length. The maximum recorded length is 40 cm. It is silver on the back and dark and light blue ventrally. He has dark blue stripes on the edge of her foot. It has a tapered body that is flattened and has six appendices that branch out in rays cerata. The radular teeth serrated teeth wear their blades.With the help of a gas-filled bag in the stomach, Blue glaucus floats on the surface. The location of the gas sac the sea swallow floats reversed. The dorsal surface, actually the foot and under, has either a blue or blue-white color. The true dorsal surface is completely silver-gray. This color is a case of counter-shading, which helps to protect it from predators from below, the sides and top. Scientists have often argued about whether the Blue glaucus moves by itself or depends on the wind for propulsion.

Blue glaucus is usually the blue ocean slug for good reason. The vibrant blue color is one of the most visually striking features of the animal. This feature was not only the evolutionary selected because of its appearance, but also provides protection against potential animal predators such as birds fly above the waters it inhabits.Blue Glaucus has a perfect example of a counter-shading. The belly, which floats on the sea surface, the blue and white color that matches the color of the ocean, while the dorsal side, which is down to the water's silver-gray to protect against predators.

Though the camouflage is one method of the Blue glaucus is defending itself in dangerous open water, another method is that it can defend their prey to steal and use for his own protection as mentioned earlier. Like most aeolids, they do this by taking the nematocysts and stored in special bags that are called cnidosacs, transfer them to the ends of their limbs-like excrescences called "cerata". A study using microscopy that the nematocysts in Blue glaucus same nematocysts were found in P. physalis prove that the sea swallow does in fact these nematocysts obtained from other organisms.

When Blue glaucus from the water, they tend to roll into a ball and then open them again when placed in water. They also flip over slowly when placed in water as their silver-gray surface faces the sky. The Blue Glaucus preys on other large pelagic creatures like the Portuguese Man o War, "by-the-wind sailor, blue and violet snail button. Occasionally the sea swallows can also be cannibals.

Another intriguing fact is that the Blue glaucus is hermaphroditic and oviparous. In reality, most sea snails snails are hermaphrodites which both strings of egg production after mating has taken place. The Blue glaucus tends to deposit eggs on driftwood or even the skeletons of their prey. They lay their eggs on floating objects or animals to keep their young until they develop so that their lungs. Blue glaucus has an interesting part of male reproductive organs. The male organ is large and hooked, probably to get around the cerata dangerous that could present problems when couples where animals are forced to be close to each other